When things go wrong… they go wrong!
Had I known… Report to prevent
Let us tell you about the sad story of Miss So and So. On a cold, icy Monday morning in January, she slips in the parking lot which is always poorly maintained by the hospital and hurts her coccyx. In a hurry to get to report, she bangs her right knee sitting on an unsafe chair that nobody wants to use. So her day is starting off badly.
While preparing her medications, she realizes that the biohazard container on the blood-taking cart is once-again overflowing, but she leaves because she is called away for an emergency. When she returns, she sets up an IV solution and picks herself when discarding the dirty needle in the same biohazard container that was already overflowing. She continues working then takes her meal break at lunch time.
After returning from lunch, she has to look after a patient that was very aggressive with the staff in the morning. When she approached him, he spit in her face… Worn out, but relieved that the day was finally over, she leaves work for a well-deserved vacation.
During her 2-week vacation, she not only has difficulty sitting down, her coccyx is causing her pain, but she misses the stage of the history tour she was supposed to attend because her right knee was too swollen.
On her return to work, a colleague comments on her jaundiced complexion caused by a raging hepatitis. Hospitalized for a liver transplant, Miss So and S0 reflected on what she should have done and said to prevent all her misfortunes.
Concerning these events, Miss So and So says she, should have informed her work team, including her employer, of the following dangers: poorly maintained parking lot, the defective chair, the overflowing biohazard container and the aggressive behaviour of the patient. In fact, she should have taken the time to report them and to complete the declaration of a dangerous situation and the incident/accident report forms for the institution. She should have known that speed hurts. She should also have followed the needle puncture protocol and made sure she received the proper medical follow-up, without forgetting to complete a CSST claim form. Lastly, for a violence-free workplace, she should have had someone accompany her during her interventions with the aggressive patient.
Today, Miss So and So realizes that had she known, she would have … REPORTED TO PREVENT.
Do you know ?